Via Wired comes Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) accusing President Obama of gutting the military. Speaking from Afghanistan on a YouTube video posted by his press office, and contrasting the Gates proposal to the President's domestic budget, Inhofe said, "in all the time we're doing this, increasing all these welfares...the only thing in the budget that's being cut is military." Watch:

On a conference call with reporters, Al Franken's lead attorney Marc Elias reiterated the campaign's position that the outcome of the Senate race is now certain -- that Al Franken is the winner.

"There are a handful of side issues that the court has yet to resolve, but none of them would involve enough votes at this point to affect the outcome," said Elias. "The total margin could change by a handful of votes, either up or down, but while the margin may not be set, the final result is no longer in doubt."

Elias said that Norm Coleman had the opportunity to bring his case -- and there were thousands and thousands of pages of evidence here -- but has only fallen behind: "So he will have to make the decision whether to appeal or not. But I think the question is not whether he has the right to appeal, but whether filing an appeal would be the right thing to do for the state of Minnesota."

The DSCC has released these two statements, after Al Franken extended his lead to 312 votes when more ballots were counted today:

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during the 2008 cycle, released the following statement:

"When you contest the results of an election, and you lose ground, you ought to know time is up. The people have spoken, and now that the courts have spoken, Norm Coleman ought to let the process of seating a Senator go forward."

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, current chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released the following statement:

"Today everyone saw proof of what we have known for a long time: once all the properly cast votes were counted, Al Franken won the election. The people of Minnesota deserve their second Senator and it is time to stop holding the seat hostage to pursue an ideological agenda. We have always said Norm Coleman deserved his day in court - he got two months. It is now time to move on, and let Senator-elect Al Franken get to work for the people of Minnesota."

A few months ago, when Barack Obama gave his big Iraq speech at Camp Lejeune, conservatives pounced on what they (and some in the mainstream media) described as the Marines' iciness to their new commander in chief, particularly compared to a previous reception for President George W. Bush.

If Republicans truly plan to filibuster Dawn Johnsen--Obama's Office of Legal Counsel chief-designate--Democrats will be able to point to a long record of Republican statements decrying the very idea of obstructing a President's prerogative to choose his cabinet officials and advisers. The group People for the American Way is circulating a document quoting several high profile Republicans who once decried the practice in no uncertain terms.

When President Bush nominated the fairly controversial John Ashcroft to be his Attorney General, Republicans raced to his defense. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)--then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee--took to the Senate floor to argue that Democrats "must afford the President a significant degree of deference to shape his Cabinet as he sees fit."

At post-court press conference, lead Franken attorney Marc Elias commented that the election contest is essentially over, with Al Franken the winner after the court had 351 previously-rejected ballots counted, which boosted Franken's lead from 225 votes to 312.

"Today is a very important step, as we now know the outcome of the election contest," said Elias, "and that is the same outcome as the recount, which is that Al Franken has more votes than Norm Coleman."

When asked whether he expected Coleman to appeal, Elias said: "That's a question at this point for former Sen. Coleman. I guess I would say the same thing about his appeal as I said about his case: That the U.S. court system is a wonderful thing, as it's open to people with non-meritorious claims."

In all seriousness, Elias also said that Coleman had weeks to lay out his case, call witnesses and produce evidence that he was the winner, in a very transparent process that involved members of all parties -- and that he has failed to do so, losing net votes at every stage of the process.

At one point, a reporter asked Elias what would happen if he found himself in front of Justice Scalia a year from now, arguing about Coleman's claims of equal protection. What would he say? "The only chance I'll wind up before Justice Scalia talking about equal protection a year from now is if we meet in a diner in Bethesda," Elias said, to the laughter of the reporters. "So I don't think that is at all a likelihood."

Minnesota has just finished counting the 351 previously-rejected ballots approved by the three-judge panel as having been legally cast and rejected in error. The numbers: Al Franken 198, Norm Coleman 111, Other 42.

This means that Al Franken's lead has increased from the 225 he had going into today, up to 312 votes out of roughly 2.9 million. We still need to wait for the judges to rule on the remaining issues, but the vote-counting during the election contest-proper is done.

The only way for Coleman to overcome this lead would be to win an appeal against the election court's prior rulings in favor of strict standards to let in new ballots, or to somehow win his much more far-fetched proposal to retroactively declare a number of absentee votes illegal and deduct them from the totals based on countywide averages. The first one is more likely in terms of feasibility, and even that's a long shot, leaving the Coleman camp at their other proposal to "set aside" the election result entirely.

Minnesota Elections Director Gary Poser is now counting ballots, out of a batch of 351 previously-rejected absentees, with Franken attorney Marc Elias and Coleman attorney Tony Trimble observing. More to come, after he's done.

Poser has just begun, but the earliest indications are that this pile could go to Al Franken by a healthy margin.

Late Update: Al Franken is currently at over 100 votes, ahead of Coleman in the 60s range. For Norm Coleman to have taken an overall lead of even one vote, he would have had to keep Franken to at most 62 votes here. Thus, Franken's lead is officially secure in this count, even if every single remaining vote were to go to Coleman.

Americans United For Change has this new TV ad praising the passage of President Obama's budget package by both houses of Congress (though it still has to go through the conference process), and blasting Republicans for unanimously voting No:

"Tell the Republican leaders that when it comes to future decisions on health care, energy, education and jobs, America doesn't want 'No We Won't,'" the announcer says. "We want, 'Yes We Can.'"

The ad will run on D.C. cable this week -- essentially aimed at the Washington media elite.